Blaze of Glory
by TacomaSquall
Summary: This songfic is set three years after the end of the game - Seifer has lived on the run ever since the game's end. Inspired by Jon Bon Jovi's song of the same name. R/R please!


Blaze of Glory

**Blaze of Glory**

by TacomaSquall

_Wake up in the morning -  
And I raise my weary head  
I got an old coat for a pillow  
And the earth was last night's bed_

_ _

_I don't know where I'm going,  
Only God knows where I've been -  
I'm living on the run,  
A six-gun lover,  
A candle in the wind._

Seifer Almasy yawned as he stretched.For the last three years, he had lived the life of an outlaw, ever since Ultimecia's defeat.From day to day, he never knew whether the ever-present pursuit would catch up to him or not.He had ran from Fisherman's Horizon to the far reaches of the Kashbakald Desert, from northern Trabia to the plains south of Winhill.His current hideout was in a dry creekbed in the ruined Centra Plains.

His nearest neighbors were unlikely to turn him in, being the tonberries that lurked in the Centra Ruins.They were far more likely to attack him in an attempt to carry out vengeance for all those who had fallen beneath the sweep of the Hyperion.The constant need for caution against the tonberries had forced Seifer to keep his skills sharp, even though he had been able to keep himself hidden from the SeeD pursuit for the last two months.

Besides being on guard against the tonberries, Seifer had little to do.Much of his time was spent reflecting upon the choices that led him to where he was.There were very few who would not dare to turn in the tall young man, and even fewer who would risk the wrath of the Gardens by giving him aid.His only friends were both dead.

Raijin died in a pitched battle against Ultimecia's slayers in the streets of fabulous Esthar, buying Seifer and Fuujin's escape.Seifer could still remember the haunting sound of Raijin's head being split open by the fury of the Lionheart.Fortunately, Squall was distracted enough by Raijin's sacrifice that he had not even noticed Seifer and Fuujin, disguised as Estharian soldiers.

Fuujin died three months ago.In the Deep Sea Research Center, the two had made a home.Seifer finally realized the devotion that his silver-haired friend had felt, and the two had begun a family.That fantasy came crashing to an end when the persistent SeeDs found them again, after almost a year's absence.A barrage of Pulse Ammo from the barrel of the Exeter was enough to end the life of their newborn child, and Fuujin went berserk.Fuujin charged the ponytailed gunslinger, only to be blasted into nothingness by a rapid combination of the Angelo Cannon and the Shockwave Pulsar.Numb with grief, Seifer exacted what revenge he could, killing the woman he once loved and the instructor that had bedeviled his time in Balamb Garden.He fled in the face of another party of SeeDs, led by Zell Dincht, the Chicken-wuss no more.

Seifer spent more and more time in reflection.He tried to figure out where things had went so wrong.All he had wanted was to be the storybook hero, the knight in shining armor that rode in and saved the day.How did he become this man who had to live on the fringes of the society whose adoration he craved?

_When you're born into this world,  
They say you're born in sin -  
But at least they gave me something,  
I didn't have to steal or have to win._

_ _

_They tell me that I'm wanted,  
Yeah, I'm a wanted man -  
I'm the colt in your stable,  
I'm Cain, where is Abel,  
C'mon catch me if you can._

It all went back to the events of the Second Sorceress War.Ultimecia's rise had been sudden, after she took over Edea's body.It was a matter of days from her appearance at Vinzer Deling's side as an advisor until Ultimecia's bold seizure of power by her blatant assassination of the Galbadian dictator during the celebration that was supposed to celebrate Galbadia's recent military triumphs.As soon as she cemented her power, she turned her eyes outwards, towards her true goal, now attainable with the political and military might she had just gained - the location and seizure of Ellone Loire, the young woman who had the power to project people through time.

By the time Ultimecia took over Galbadia, Seifer had already joined her.He had been seduced by her promises of fulfilling every one of his wildest fantasies.Unprepared for the promises Ultimecia made, Seifer had little choice but to follow her.He became the protector, lover, and confidant of the sorceress.Whenever he objected to things that she had him do, she smothered his protests in the sensuality of her embrace.Overwhelmed, he offered no resistance as Ultimecia cultivated his innate tendencies towards cruelty and outright sadism.

Soon, Seifer had forgotten everything that Edea and Cid had taught him about morality, succumbing to a twisted hair-trigger impulse for self-gratification.Seifer cheerfully tortured his childhood rival, seeking the answers that Ultimecia demanded from Squall Leonhart.Seifer hungered for the power that Ultimecia eventually gave him as the commander of Galbadia Garden.His orders were the ones that triggered the assault upon Balamb Garden as it flew over the Centra Continent, the ones that led to the deaths of hundreds of SeeDs and cadets.

_You ask about my conscience,  
And I offer you my soul.  
You ask if I'm gonna be a wiseman  
When I ask if I'll grow old._

_ _

_You ask me if I've known  
What its like to sing songs in the rain -  
I've seen love come,  
I've seen it shot down,  
I've seen it die in flames._

It took the incident in the Lunatic Pandora to make him realize how much of a monster he had become.Squall and his other friends had come to the fantastic craft, in an effort to prevent time compression.The SeeDs fought their way to a control room, in which they found Seifer and the Posse.

Seifer was horrified when his best friends betrayed him, pleading for him to turn away from Ultimecia and surrender to the SeeDs.They told him that if he gave himself up and helped them save the world, he could be given a pardon for the actions he had already committed.Unfortunately, Seifer realized that such promises were only empty lies.No matter how wrong he was, he would continue to support Ultimecia.

He fought against the SeeDs then, cutting down the dread Guardian, Odin.The SeeDs fought him valiantly, but were no match for Seifer.They only defeated him through the intervention of the masked being who wielded the Masamune, Excalibur, Excalipoor and Zantetsuken - the mysterious being named Gilgamesh.

As Seifer prepared to slink away in defeat, he saw an opportunity and seized Rinoa Heartilly.Using the woman who had been his first love as an hostage, he fled back to the Sorceress Adel, now the mortal host for Ultimecia.The others pursued him, arriving as Seifer held Rinoa in front of the Sorceress.

In the moment before Rinoa was junctioned to Ultimecia, Seifer looked her full in the eyes.The look of unending terror reflected there pierced the Sorceress' Knight to the core.He was unable to face the wrath of the SeeDs, and fled.His desertion of Ultimecia, dictated by his sudden realization of the evil he had become, led eventually to her defeat in the realm of compressed time.

Cold comfort was that knowledge to Seifer, though, as he found himself pursued by SeeDs bent on bringing him in for their kangaroo courts.Even with the knowledge that he had done wrong, he was not going to surrender himself to the tender mercies of the people who he had fought so frequently.The Posse followed him into his exile, helping him stay one jump ahead of the law.

Bitterly he regretted their choice, now.If Raijin and Fuujin had not joined him in exile, they would not be dead now.On the other hand, he might very well have already been captured by the forces that he had successfully, to this day eluded...

_Each night I go to bed,  
I pray the Lord my soul to keep -  
I ain't lookin' for forgiveness  
Before they put me six foot deep._

_ _

_Lord, I gotta ask a favor,  
An' I hope you'll understand.  
That I've lived life to the fullest -  
Let this boy die like a man._

_ _

_Staring down a bullet,  
Let me make my final stand..._

Too many lives lost.Rinoa and Quistis, cut down by the Hyperion.Raijin, his body cut in two by the relentless force of the Renzokozuken technique's most powerful move, the Lionheart.Little Edea, Seifer's daughter, blasted apart by Pulse Ammunition designed to be used on the resistant flesh of Ruby Dragons.Fuujin, whose flesh had been ionized by the hellish energies of the Shockwave Pulsar.Selphie, mowed down by a fusillade of automatic fire when trigger-happy Galbadian troops opened fire on the Sorceress' Knight.Irvine, who died a week after he killed baby Edea from internal injuries sustained during the battle in Deep Sea Research Center.

Seifer picked up the satellite-band commlink that he had picked up three months before, from Rinoa's corpse.He looked at the small item as he turned it over in his hands.He had used it only once, to send a taunting message to Rain Boy about his beloved's death.He started to clench his hand around the delicate device, intending to crush it, but stopped.

He shook his head.How many more needed to die?He regretted the trail of death and destruction strewn behind him.He was unable to just lay down and die, but he was tired of running and hiding.Let there be an end to it all.

Seifer donned the commlink's headset and spoke tersely into the device's microphone."Squall Leonhart.This is Seifer Almasy.If you want to end this game once and for all, meet me at the orphanage where everything began.I'll be there, if you come alone.I don't care what happens after we face each other, but I want one last duel."

"It's your choice.We can continue this game and watch Hyne knows how many others die.Or you can meet me, and we will end our feud once and for all.Afterwards, if I still live, I will give myself up to your people."

_Shot down  
In a blaze of glory  
Take me on,  
And we'll know the truth._

_ _

_Goin' down  
In a blaze of glory  
Lord, I never drew first  
But I drew first blood -_

_ _

_I'm no one's son,  
Call me young gun_

Seifer Almasy set the commlink down on the ground after he ended his call.He started walking towards Edea's Orphanage.When Squall arrived at the orphanage, Seifer would face him one last time.Squall would have to kill him, for Seifer was not about to give himself up.If Squall failed, he was sure that the other SeeDs would oblige him.

One way or another, Seifer knew, the better man would win.

**Fin**


End file.
